The Covid-19 Prayer

I was thinking about a childhood memory today, that of a sign posted in my Grandma Kanaan's kitchen. It read:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

and the wisdom to know the difference.

I was 5 years old, and my father spent about 15 minutes explaining to me what "serenity," "courage," and "wisdom" were. He neglected to mention that my Grandma Kanaan might've had a drinking problem in addition to being a heavy smoker and a helluva gambler...so I'll stick with the sign and remember her heart of pure gold for the purposes of this story. I thought about those words today, as I read the news that our quarantine time is coming to a cautious end. I thought about how much my life changed in such a short time...

1) Covid-19, along with the instability of the stock market, made me think twice about how I spend my money. As a result, I moved my operations from an office to my house. I researched and built a website that I could manage myself. I researched and implemented a business program that would help me streamline my operations so I could focus on spending more time with clients. These changes turned my business into a lean machine, ultimately saving $10,000+ this year alone. 

2) Thanks to social distancing, I got to spend time Zooming with people I had lost touch with or don’t get to talk to very often. I loved reconnecting with friends from all over the country instead of waiting to see them at the events I attend. 

3) Thanks to the quarantine, it forced my boyfriend Doug and me to really think about how we live in our house. When we realized our guest room had only been used by guests for 6 days in the last 10 months, it made the idea of a “home office” so much simpler. We sold our extra furniture and used that money to pretty up our new home office and turn the third bedroom into a craft room. 

4) Thanks to all this extra time being spent at home, my boyfriend spent some of his downtime painting the house, doing a little yard work, and catching up on some home repairs. He built a craft table, built the desks and bookcase for our home office, and hung pictures. Those curtains I bought 4 years ago that dragged on the floor finally got hemmed, and I got to use some of my mother’s fabric decoupaging our new desks. 

5) Thanks to all the restaurants being closed, Doug and I (mostly Doug) have been cooking healthy meals. I found some tasty, healthy recipes that we enjoy. My dance studio offered all its classes via Zoom, so I could continue working out 1-2 hours a day. At the beginning of the year, I set a goal for myself of attending 200 dance classes. During this time, I completed 100+ of those classes, and I am down 25 lbs.

While my nails may be a mess and my grey roots are showing, Covid-19 taught me to enjoy where I’m at and who I’m with. It taught me to make the most of today and to focus on changing the things I can change, not the things I can't.

With all due respect to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr,w ho wrote the original The Serenity Prayer, I have revised it for 2020: